The Politics of Language Roadmaps in Canada: Understanding the Conservative Government’S Approach to Official Languages

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The Politics of Language Roadmaps in Canada: Understanding the Conservative Government’S Approach to Official Languages The Politics of Language Roadmaps in Canada: Understanding the Conservative Government’s Approach to Official Languages LINDA CARDINAL University of Ottawa HELAINA GASPARD University of Ottawa RÉMI LÉGER Simon Fraser University On May 2, 2011, the Conservative Party of Canada, under the leadership of Stephen Harper, won a majority government following five years as a mi- nority government. As a member of Parliament and then as president of the National Citizens Coalition, Harper had expressed strong reservations about official languages. “As a religion,” he infamously declared in May 2001, “bilingualism is the god that failed” (Canadian Press, 2011). However, in March 2013, the Conservative government unveiled the Roadmap for Canada’s Official Languages 2013–2018 (Canada, 2013), extending funding for another five years for a number of governmental and intergovern- mental programs as well as for programs in support of official languages minority communities (OLMCs), that is, Francophone communities outside of Quebec and Anglophone communities in Quebec. What does the adoption of this language roadmap reveal about Harper’s views on official languages in Canada? What are the key features and tenets of the Acknowledgments: This research was made possible by generous financial support from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). We thank our audience at the 2013 Annual Conference of the Canadian Political Science Association and the journal’s anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and sugges- tions on earlier versions of this article. Linda Cardinal, 120 University, Room 5051, Faculty of Social Sciences Building, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Email: [email protected] Helaina Gaspard, 120 University, Room 5057, Faculty of Social Sciences Building, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Email: [email protected] Rémi Léger, 8888 University Drive, AQ-6056, Burnaby BC V5A 1S6, Email: rleger@ fsu.ca Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue canadienne de science politique Page 1 of 23 doi:10.1017/S0008423915000517 © 2015 Canadian Political Science Association (l’Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2LINDA CARDINAL,HELAINA GASPARD AND RÉMI LÉGER Conservative government’s approach to the maintenance and even promo- tion of official languages? Our analysis initially reveals the Janus-faced nature of Harper and the Conservative party on official languages.1 On the one hand, the Conservative government has tended to undermine official languages through appointments to key federal positions, including officers of Parliament and Supreme Court judges, as well as by eliminating support programs. On the other hand, it released a language roadmap that maintains the overall funding of official languages programs and initiatives. In trying to understand this puzzle, this article delves into and examines the politics of language roadmaps in Canada. On one level, language roadmaps are policy statements that allow governments to identify policy objectives and earmark funding for specific departments and programs. On another level, language roadmaps are means to promote broader and more funda- mental political goals. Indeed, we aim to show that language roadmaps are best understood as policy instruments rather than policy statements. Policy instruments are “bearers of values, fueled by one interpretation of the social and by precise notions of the mode of regulation” (Lascoumes and Le Galès, 2007: 4; see also 2004). The language roadmap unveiled by the Conservative majority government in March 2013—as well as those unveiled by the Liberal majority government in 2003 and the Conservative minority government in 2008—conveys and promotes partic- ular representations of Canadian identity and citizenship. More broadly, we also aim to show that language roadmaps constitute the fourth generation of official language policies in Canada; the first three generations found their respective bases in the 1969 Official Languages Act, the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the 1988 Official Languages Act (see Cardinal and Juillet, 2005). This article contributes to two bodies of scholarship. First, it addresses neglected aspects in the emerging debate on Harper and conservative ideol- ogy in Canada. Since forming a minority government in 2006, successive Conservative governments have recast Canada’s identity as one rooted in monarchic, militaristic and Arctic symbols (Blake, 2012; Boily, 2013). However, research and debates on Conservative governments’ attempts to redefine national identity have rendered official languages invisible. For example, in their edited collection, Conservatism in Canada, Farney and Rayside (2013) provide a thorough examination of the new conservative ideology in Canada, but official languages are notably absent. Second, the article attempts to chart a new area of research on language policies and official languages in Canada, explaining the choice of policy in- struments and the political and social impact following from that choice. The existing scholarship tends to focus on the genesis of language policies (Martel and Pâquet, 2012;McRoberts,1997), the normative dimensions of language rights and protections (Kymlicka, 1998;Réaume,2003) and conflicts Abstract. This article critically examines the Conservative government’s approach to official lan- guages, through a policy instrument framework. Special attention is paid to the third federal roadmap for official languages—the first having been unveiled by the Liberal government in 2003 and the second by the Conservative minority government in 2008—and how this roadmap conveys a new rep- resentation of official languages in relation to Canadian identity and citizenship. The focus on the lin- guistic integration of new immigrants in the 2013 language roadmap generates interest. The policy instrument framework also shows how language roadmaps represent the fourth generation of official language policies in Canada; the first three generations found their respective bases in the 1969 Official Languages Act,theCharter of Rights and Freedoms and the 1988 Official Languages Act. The article concludes that an analysis of language roadmaps elucidates transformations initiated by the Conservative governments in the area of official languages in Canada. It also promotes further exploration and analysis of language policies through the policy instrument framework. Résumé. Dans cet article, les auteurs procèdent à une analyse critique de la politique du gou- vernement conservateur du Canada dans le domaine des langues officielles en prenant appui sur l’approche des instruments. Ils étudient, de façon particulière, la publication de la troisième feuille de route sur les langues officielles–la première ayant été publiée par le gouvernement libéral en 2003 et la deuxième, par le gouvernement conservateur minoritaire en 2008–et montrent comment la feuille de route du gouvernement conservateur représente le véhicule d’une nouvelle représentation sur les langues officielles au Canada. Entre autres, l’accent sur l’intégration linguis- tique des immigrants dans la feuille de route de 2013 suscite l’intérêt. Grâce à l’approche des in- struments, les auteurs montrent ainsi que les feuilles de route constituent une quatrième génération de politiques dans le domaine des langues officielles au Canada–les trois premières générations étant représentées par la Loi sur les langues officielles de 1969,laCharte canadienne des droits et libertés ainsi que la Loi sur les langues officielles de 1988.L’article conclut que l’ana- lyse de la feuille de route sur les langues officielles du gouvernement conservateur permet de mieux comprendre les mutations initiées par le gouvernement conservateur dans le domaine des langues officielles au Canada depuis 2013. Les auteurs invitent aussi à approfondir l’approche des instru- ments comme des traceurs de changements pour l’étude des langues officielles au Canada. between federal and Quebec language policies (Cardinal, 2010; McMillan, 1998). Others have examined the relationship between ethnocultural diversity and official languages policy (Abu-Laban and Couture, 2010;Farmer,2008) as well has the hierarchy of languages in Canada, particularly in relation to Aboriginal languages (Haque and Patrick, 2014). Our analysis proceeds in three parts. In an effort to situate the emer- gence of language roadmaps, the first part offers a brief overview of official languages policy in Canada. The second part discusses the Janus-faced nature of the Conservative government’s approach to official languages. The third and final part analyzes the use of language roadmaps as policy instruments, in particular how these have enabled Harper and the Conservatives to recast official languages as means for the promotion of broader political goals. In essence, the policy instrument framework provides crucial insights into the Conservative governments’ representation of official languages in relation to Canadian identity and citizenship. 4LINDA CARDINAL,HELAINA GASPARD AND RÉMI LÉGER 1. Official Languages in Canada and the Emergence of Language Roadmaps According to the 2011 Census of Canada, of the 1.27 million immigrants who arrived between 2006 and 2011, 77 per cent had a mother tongue other than English or French, notably Chinese languages but also Arabic, Punjabi, Spanish, Tagalog and Urdu (Statistics Canada, 2014). Despite the demographic significance of these languages, English and French remain Canada’s two official
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